Put To Rest
by Turtleman55
Summary: Lee decides not to tick the bandits off and puts the bag of meds back in the vent. Follow a forward thinking Lee Everett as he deals with walkers; bandits, the changing climate, Kenny and Lilly's egos' and raising little Clem. Diverges from Long Road Ahead. Rated T for mild language and adult situations, will most likely be bumped up to Mature later.
1. Prologue

**I do not own The Walking Dead. It is the property of both Robert Kirkman and Telltale Games.**

* * *

_Shit._

He had hoped Lilly had been wrong, that the stressed administrator had miscounted and been paranoid. Alternatively, that Duck had been bored and simply tricked Lee by making a mystery that he would never solve. Alas, the brown bag of meds was in his hands and the pink Xs and broken flashlights actually _mattered_. It all pointed to a traitor, and now the three weeks of almost peace since the St. Johns' Lee had cherished would have to end. There would be another argument, and either Kenny or Lilly would decide to split the group for good.

There was time to fix this. Lee knew that Kenny would not be dissuaded from finding a boat. It was his career before the world went to hell, after all; he could fish, navigate through stormy weather, presumably escape watcher clutches and if not, find a place remote enough to try. Lee understood that his moustachioed friend saw this as his only chance at a future but all Lee pictured was a boat out a gas; in the middle of winter and some ocean. That is if Kenny could even find a boat.

True, the motel would not be much better. Macon would be almost bled of supplies soon enough and the bandits would make a move for their stuff. Lee didn't know much about heaters but he was pretty sure that the motel ones were powered by gas and if not, there was an option of using one of the portable generators Carley had grabbed from the electronic store or lighting up small fires in either garbage cans or the motel lobby fireplace. The light would be contained from the walkers at least.

Speaking of, what happens to walkers during winter? They truly were mysterious creatures, taking all sorts of assorted damage and still moving. Seeing things without any eyes and surprisingly not ballooning up underneath the Georgian sun (Lee had watched a gross documentary once about flesh decomposition a t the behest of a colleague, heat and dead skin don't mix.) Could they freeze? If so, that would actually be a reason not to stay. Macon didn't have Canada-like winters.

As for defences, Trevalier Motel was not ideal. The bandits proved that in their first attack two weeks earlier, sending arrows over the fence and car barriers. Lilly had managed to tag one in the gut with her rifle, which caused them to scatter. There had not been an attack since and now there was someone hiding away meds from the group. It was not hard for Lee to piece together. When they recovered, Lee was sure they would forgo archery and just drive a car through their barrier with their men behind them to take position. If that happened, life at the motel would be over. Even if everyone lived, walkers would show up hearing the gunshots to finish them off. No, they would have to get the upper hand now or retreat.

There were two places Lee had in mind. Lee and the others (minus Ben) had already visited Robins Air Force Base a couple of months ago in search of supplies and military personnel. They had encountered Mark and all the glorious stockpile food and blown through that in three months. Lee was sure there was more at the time but walkers came. There would be plenty of specialty items and probably a source of power, beyond that though; it was a lot of ground to cover and too desirable to other people. Besides, none of them knew how to fly a plane.

The second option was Fort Benjamin Hawkins; an old Creek Nation trading post that served as both a centre of trade and military command headquarters. It would be a good vantage point over the town, and personally, Lee was giddy to see the new excavations that they had done on the fort era items as he'd been incarcerated when they opened. The only problem was that Fort Hawkins was little more than an elevated wooden palisade; if a fire happened they would burn, if walkers surrounded the place the group could not leave and it would let the bandits know exactly where they were.

_Decisions, decisions… _Lee knew that the next few months would be full of them; that he would have to juggle Kenny and Lilly's wishes, the traitor, the bandits, Winter, Clem's growing desire to go to Savannah and finally the horde of undead monsters that wanted to eat them all.

The first decision was easy: Lee put the bag of medicine back into the ventilation shaft and headed back to Lilly's room.

He was sure someone was watching him from the woods.

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**And there you have it. Prologue done.**

**This fanfic is a diversion from Long Road Ahead primarily set in Macon. I haven't decided yet if Christa, Omid and Chuck will grace themselves again or if there will be new characters. Anyways, I'd appreciate honest reviews. This is my first fanfic so I'd like it to be good with your help :). I procrastinate so don't expect regular chapters.**

**I'd like to say thank you to Telltale for creating such an awesome game.**


	2. Conference

**I do not own the Walkng Dead. If I did there would be more crossbows and maybe a Raylan Givens-like protagonist.**

* * *

"Any luck?" Lilly asked.

"Yeah, you were right. I found a bag of medicine in a ventilation shaft two minutes away from here. Antibiotics, vitamins, sleeping pills, painkillers and even some stuff for STDS." Lee explained as he sat down on the wooden chair opposite Lilly. She looked more haggard by the hour; her hair was unkempt and untidy but everything about her seemed wild.

"Sonuvabitch. This won't go unanswered!" Lilly stated as she rose from her chair. Lee quickly stood up as well and gently reached out to touch Lilly's shoulder with his left hand, motioning her to sit back down. "Settle. We have to decide how to handle this."

"What's there to decide?! We have a _traitor._ Ben, Carley, or Kenny out there is deciding to actively sabotage us. One of them is killing us, and I want to find out whom. Where's the bag?" Lilly fumed; but sat anyway, with her arms folded across the arch of the chair. Lee thought she could probably kick ten peoples' asses' at the moment.

Hoping not to be the first, he answered. "I put it back. The markings on the wall indicated that today was the day whoever was supposed to get the meds. I'm pretty sure someone was watching from the woods to see if I'd take it away or not and I for one did not want them pissed. Besides, don't you want to know who's picking them up?"

"Hell no! Those are our meds! We need them. I don't want that bandit I shot getting better! I want him to die and then eat all his rapist friends! You remember Jolene's tape." Lilly finished, frowning in frustration.

Lee did remember the poor woman's tape. Hell, he had _nightmares_ about that tape. "A: We don't know who the traitor is. B: We don't whether there is a traitor, we could have an addict for all we know. Or maybe there's someone out in the woods who needs help but doesn't want to stay here and just be reminded everyday how they're just another mouth to feed. Like how you treat Ben. C: If there is a traitor, why are they betraying us? Are they buying in to another group and just trying to stop them from attacking us?"

"I think we would notice someone getting high, Lee. They would actually look happy in this craphole, unless you are accusing Duck. You're not accusing Duck, are you?" Lilly mused with a smile.

"No, I don't think a nine-year old is a drug addict."

"Good. And the reason I treat Ben the way I do is because in the three weeks I've gotten to know him; he's a coward, he mopes, he's a terrible liar and worst of all: he's _content._ Clementine speaks her mind more than he does. The reason he dislikes me is that I see right through him and he knows I'll kick his ass out someday, so why not betray us?!" Lilly reasoned. "Besides, if there is someone out there who needs our help they should just show up already? You saw today what being alone gets you."

_The woman in the street. At least she didn't have to become one of them._ Despite riling up Kenny yet again, Lee didn't regret firing that shot at all.

"Anyway." Lilly continued. "Your other theories don't explain the markings on the wall. Why go through all that coding effort just to help someone? Why keep it secret? If someone made a deal with the bandits to keep us safe, why not tell us? It affects our lives. The only thing that makes sense is a traitor."

"I suppose" Lee conceded. "You've already explained Ben's motive, why Kenny or Carley?"

"_Why not_ Kenny or Carley? They both hate how I run things. Kenny wants to leave; so why not make a deal with the bandits and buy time to fix that damn RV?" Lilly gripped her chair in anger. "You _know_ he has no qualms about murder, so why not kill us too?"

"Lilly..." Lee began, softly.

"I know what you're going to say. It was an impossible situation. He could have been dead. He might have come back and killed us all." Lilly said in a sullen tone. "He took the only person that mattered to me in this world. I _can't_ forgive him. Not for that."

_Annie. Do you feel the same way?_ Lee often wondered. He had not seen his sister-in-law since she testified at the trial and now she was probably dead too. That or one of them. Deciding that Lilly could not view Kenny objectively; Lee re-routed the conversation. "And Carley, why would she do this?"

"She's a two-faced bitch." Lilly spat "she doesn't want to leave, but she doesn't like how things are, either. So she'll undermine me every chance she gets; pick sides in arguments without really picking sides because she only speaks up when convenient. Don't think I haven't noticed when she pulls someone aside, I bet she said you should lead us, right?"

_Well, yeah but… _"And why would she betray us?"

"Because it creates chaos! She'll have a good in with everyone no matter how the chips lay. _She's a survivor_, Lee. A first-class operator and manipulator. I bet that if someone is stealing meds, they are doing it because Carley asked them to! So, keep it in your pants and you should be fine, Lee."

"W-what?!" Lee felt like he had just been verbally sucker-punched.

"I'm asking you not to sleep with her, Lee. You are the only one I trust. Besides Duck and Clem." Lilly replied, with no levity in her tone.

"Can we at some point get back to the regular conversation?"

"Right. You're wasting my time, Lee." Lilly said, narrowing her gaze on him. "I assume with all this talking you have some sort of plan that differs from me going outside and wailing on Ben until someone feels bad for him and gives up the traitor?"

"Actually, I do. First we…"

* * *

"Hey sweet pea, what are you drawing?"

"Duck offered me half a candy bar to draw him as Robin." Clementine sing-songed as she dribbled some more green on Duck's chalk uniform. Lee was impressed with the detail of the parking-lot picture, all these weeks at the motel had done wonders for Clementine's art skills; she used to draw in swirls but not there were distinct lines and Duck looked proportioned. He grinned at his pseudo-daughter and said, "Getting commissioned already?"

"No, I'm doing it for free. The food was from the car." The little girl replied.

Lee frowned; despite getting Clementine to accept the red hoodie she was now wearing, she wouldn't eat food from the camper because it couldn't be returned to the original owner. Lee had to go out of his way during supply runs in Macon to find food for Clementine or else she would starve, and no one would eat beside her because she would frown at them for stealing from someone who was probably dead. Lee was less inspired to hold such ethics. Hunger was a terrible thing to die of. There were only two weeks of rations from the car left, Lee was surprised Duck still had half a candy bar to give away.

"Well, I think I have some soup from the supply run today. Want some?" Lee offered.

"Is it Mushroom?" Clem inquired, now switching to Yellow to fit Duck Grayson's utility belt.

Lee dug the can out of his jean pocket and held it upwards to examine it. The great thing about soup was that the expiry date was well off from now, and that it was one of the few things you could cook over a fire without burning to black. "Tomato." The ex-con answered.

"Yum. I hate Mushroom." Clem looked up at Lee and clenched her face in faux-disgust before returning to her artwork. "I'm all out of brown. Do you think Duck will mind having red hair?"

"Just tell him he's Robin with fire powers." Lee replied absently as he walked back towards their room to fish out the wire rack. He was pretty sure Katjaa had the cooking pot and about to head there when he remembered why he wanted to talk to Clem.

"Hey Clem, remember that time when Duck wanted to re-enact King Kong?"

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**Another chapter done. I originally planned to write all the camp people in but I hit a block and this chapter is twice as long as the prologue so I saw no harm in stopping. I love that people are reviewing, following and favouring this already. Keep it up! **


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